Priorities
by poeticgrace
Summary: Crosby gets his priorities straight when it comes to Gaby. ONE SHOT.


Crosby doesn't know where he is headed when he leaves the houseboat, only that he finds himself sitting on a swing in the middle of the night at the park across the street from his apartment. Of all the selfish and destrutive things he had done in his life, his reckless night with Gaby had to rank near the top. And yet, as he sat there, looking up at her illuminated window, he felt more connected to the shadow behind the curtain than anything he had since the day he found out he had a son.

The fight with Adam had been bad and yet another one with Jasmine a few hours later had been even worse. The sheer disappointment in Max's eyes as he realized that there was something that made him different from the other kids, the angry crash of Jasmine's reaction in the houseboat, the heartbreakig way Jabar's face crumpled when he dropped him off – these were things he knew would stay with him long after he forgot about the rest of the day. A different version of him would have ended up back at the bar with a stack of shot glasses and a bottle of Jack to keep him company. This version wondered briefly if he could have a _Say Anything_ moment to get Gaby to talk to him. He probably should have been figuring out a way to get his fiancee to talk to him. His priorities were kind of messed up.

His eyes were still fixed on Gaby's window when he saw her pull back the sheer curtain. Her gaze managed to find his across the street, her eyes widening when she spotted him slumped over in the swing. Gaby shook her head sadly and let the curtain fall back shut. Crosby hung his head in sadness and had started to climb out of the swing just as he saw the door to her apartment building open. With a look both ways, Gaby pulled her peacoat tighter around her body and jogged across the street toward him.

"Crosby, I told you to stop," Gaby pled, stopping short to keep some much-needed distance between them. She had been having the hardest week of her life because of a few too-many drinks and even more feelings. Saying goodbye to Max and forcing herself to move on from the Braverman clan was an everyday battle. "You made it pretty clear what you wanted the other day at my apartment. We can't, which means you can't show up here like this. I'm not strong enough to let you put me through this."

Rubbing his hand over his dark blonde hair, Crosby looked up at Gaby with the saddest eyes she had seen in quite some time. He fished around in his pocket and pulled a velvet box from his jacket. "I am pretty sure that I'm pretty much ruining everything for everyone," he told her. "In the course of one day, I managed to break Jasmine's heart, have my houseboat pretty much torn apart, have a pretty bad fight with my brother, disappoint my sister-in-law and separate myself from my son. Oh, and did I mention that thanks to my selfish stupidity, my nephew now knows that something is wrong with him?"

Gaby covered her mouth in horror, tears immediately springing to her eyes. "What? Is Max okay? What did he hear? How did this happen?" The questions were numerous and coming much too quickly for Crosby to answer. "How did Kristina and Adam handle it?"

"I don't know," he admitted. "Adam kicked me out as soon as we realized that Max heard. I figured that they probably needed to explain it to him. Adam was pretty pissed and was yelling at me. Max overheard it all from the stairs."

"I have to get over there," Gaby said, turning on her heel and running across the street toward her car. She didn't hear Crosby yelling back at her. Her only focus was on getting across town to see Max. As much as Kristina and Adam probably hated her right now, Max needed her. She had to find a way to make this okay for him. Because of her poor choices, a perfect little boy was getting his heart broken.

She could hear the screams coming up the sidewalk before she even got to the front door. She rang the doorbell once before letting herself in. Haddie was crying in an armchair, a bewildered Alex at her side. Kristina was trying to calm a flailing Max while Adam paced the floor, his head in his hands. Dropping her purse on the floor, Gaby spoke up in a strong and confident voice, directing all of her attention on Max and ignoring the surprised stares from the other adults in the room.

"Max, stop it right now or you are going to lose stickers," she reminded him evenly, kneeling down carefully in front of him on the couch. "That documentary you wanted to watch on Animal Planet about crickets is on tomorrow night. It's two hours long, remember? That means that you have to be able to cash in extra stickers."

He sat down the book he had been about to throw and looked up at Gaby. "You left."

"I did and that was wrong. That's not what you do when you love someone," she admitted. She tossed a pillow to the side on the sofa and sat down next to Max. "You know how you get scared sometimes and it makes you say things you don't mean?" Max cocked his head to the side in deep contemplation before nodding. "Well, that's what happened with me. Something happened that scared me, and instead of dealing with it, I ran away. It made me say something I didn't mean. Do you understand?"

"What happened?"

"It was something very grown-up. It doesn't really matter what, Max. It only matters how I deal with it," Gaby tried to explain. "I shouldn't have left, and if you will accept my apology and have me back, I promise that I won't leave again until we both agree that it is okay. I am really sorry that I didn't handle this right. You're more important than anything that was going on. I am sorry, Max. How would you feel if I came back?"

Gaby heard a scuffle somewhere in the hallway but didn't tear her eyes away from Max to see what was going on. Instead, she felt tears slipping down her cheek as Max threw his arms around her and buried his face in her jacket. She kissed the top of his head and hugged him back tightly. "You promise you won't leave again?"

"I promise," she repeated, pulling back to look down into the young boy's eyes. "I know that today has been a pretty hard day for you, but you just proved to me who strong you are by accepting my apology. I'll tell you what. Why don't you help Haddie and Alex clean up the living room while I talk to your parents so that we can come up with a reward?"

"Can we get frozen yogurt and see the new caterpillar statue they put up at the sculpture garden?"

"We'll see, buddy," Adam said as he ruffled his son's hair. "Help Haddie and we'll be right back."

"Haddie, Haddie, did you hear that we might go get frozen yogurt? And they put up the new caterpillar this week!" he exclaimed excitedly as he scrambled to the floor to help Alex pick up the pencils he had thrown earlier. "Alex, did you know that caterpillars are herbivores? That means they eat plants."

Gaby smiled affectionately before following Kristina and Adam into the kitchen. She was surprised to find Crosby standing at the counter with a cup of coffee in hand. "What are you doing here?"

"That's what I asked him," Kristina said bitterly, crossing her arms over her chest. She had begged Gaby to come back until she had found out what an idiot her brother-in-law had been. If it had been the first time or even the tenth time Crosby had disappointed Adam, she probably could have let it go. But this time had touched her son in the worst way possible, and she wasn't sure how she was to feel about it. "Gaby, we very clearly have a situation that is messy. However, we're adults and we can deal with it accordingly. What we can't deal with, what I can't risk, is that this will hurt Max again. If you are going to be here, I need to know with absolute certainty that you won't leave again. You saw his reaction this time. If this is going to be hard, if being around Crosby is too difficult, we need to know now before you disappoint him again."

While her words were harsh, a part of Gaby had to acknowledge that she was right. "Okay, that's fair," Gaby conceded. "I made a promise to Max, and I have every intention of honoring that promise. Just because I made a mistake with Crosby doesn't mean that I can't do my job. Clearly, it would be best if I wasn't around him, but I know that there will be times when that's impossible. That is my issue to deal with and not yours. It's certainly not Max's, and I won't punish him because I did an idiotic thing."

"And what about Jasmine and Jabar?"

"Like I said, I accept full responsibility for what I did."

"Kristina..." Crosby began before his sister-in-law held up her hand to stop him short.

"I told you then and I will tell you now, I don't want to hear it."

Adam rubbed his hands over his face. "Gaby, if you would like to take Max for frozen yogurt, I think that would be a good idea," he suggested. "I am going to take my wife out for a few much-needed drinks and a long dinner. Do you mind staying with him until Haddie is home? She has plans with Alex but should be home by ten."

"Sure, no problem," Gaby agreed. She glanced at Crosby and shook her head before excusing herself, leaving the rest of the Braverman clan alone in the kitchen. She could hear Kristina yelling at him as she headed for the living room, demanding to know what he was doing there and why he was doing this to them all over again. A few minutes later Adam led his wife through the room and up the stairs without a word. By that time, Alex and Haddie had helped Max finish clean the living room and left for their night out. Even Max had disappeared upstairs to get ready for their night of frozen yogurt and caterpillars.

Crosby watched Gaby sitting alone on the couch, her face in her hands and her shoulders visibly shaking from tears. "Stop watching me, Crosby," came her small voice from behind her fingertips. He chuckled softly to himself before padding over to the other end of the sofa. She only looked up when she felt the weight shift opposite her. "I mean, Crosby, I told you that I wasn't going to do this. You said this couldn't happen so just leave me alone."

"I can't."

Her jaw dropped incredulously. "You can't?" she yelled in a whisper. Fire burned in her eyes as she met his gaze angrily. "Are you kidding me? That engagement ring in your pocket, your little boy at home, a very angry fiancee – those are just three of the reasons why you can leave me alone. And if those aren't enough, let me give you three more. Your brother, your sister-in-law and most importantly, your nephew. I won't do this to them."

"Gaby."

"Crosby, I mean it! You made it pretty clear that you love Jasmine, even after I told you that I liked you. Do you know what that felt like? How humiliating it was for me? I had to see your fiancee come over here and Kristina loves her. I can't do this to your family, and I sure as hell won't let you do this to me. Max needs me. That's where our connection has to end."

"And what if it doesn't?"

"Why are you doing this to me?"

"All those reasons you pointed out earlier, they're really good ones," he agreed. "I mean, my son and my family, you're right about that. But the ring and Jasmine... She doesn't make me feel very good about myself. When I needed to talk to her, she couldn't take one minute to listen to me. She was more worried about herself than about us. You listened. You dropped everything and just were there for me."

Gaby laughed humorlessly. "This supposed selfishness that you're inflicting on Jasmine, the way she didn't listen, that's all you, Crosby. You couldn't take one minute to listen to me. You had no problem pointing out how she did you wrong, but what about what you did to me? I won't do this with you."

"Gaby, please, just listen to me."

"I heard you, Crosby."

"I don't need you to hear me, I need you to _listen_."

"Listen to what?" 

"I'm the one who told Jasmine that it was over." A stunned silence spread over the room as Adam and Kristina watched undetected from the landing. Kristina clutched her husband's arm at the last confession. "After we fought, she came back. She was angry but she told me that she loved me. She wanted to make this work for Jabar. And then she told me that she understood that _I_ got scared and that _I _didn't know how to handle my emotions and that _I_ messed up. She didn't take any responsibility, and that's when I realized that I was doing this because I felt like it's what I'm supposed to do."

"What you're supposed to do?"

"I love Jabar more than anything, I do, but I never planned on him. Jasmine was gone for a long time and then she showed up with this amazing kid and told me that he was mine. I had already missed out on so much, and I wanted to make up for lost time. I mean, when kids think about their parents, they imagine them together and married and happily ever after. I wanted to give him that because I had it growing up, and I have to say, it's pretty amazing. But when I was closed to getting it, I got scared. I was terrified. She had this whole future she had planned without me. I was walking around on egg shells for weeks with everyone. Well, everyone but you. I haven't felt as much like myself in a very long time as I did that night with you. It was easy but even more than that, it was real."

"So you think I'm easy?"

Crosby scrubbed his face with his hands in exasperation. "This is coming out all wrong," he whispered before looking up at her. "I think that you make it feel like it's okay to be me. I don't have to pretend to be perfect or all put together. I don't have to pretend at all."

"I liked you. I liked you and you knew that. And you still hurt me, Crosby. How can I know you won't do that again?"

"You can't," he answered honestly. "I mean, we both know that I'm capable of hurting you. I can only promise you that I'm gonna try really hard not to hurt you. And when I do, because that's what we imperfect people do, I'm always going to say sorry and do whatever I have to do to make it better."

"If you hurt me again..."

It was only when Crosby reached out for her hand that Adam and Kristina came the rest of the way down the stairs. "We have a lot to work out," Kristina said, looking between the two of them. "We have to make sure to do what is best for Max." She looked at Gaby and then Crosby. "But we can do that later. For now, I am going to go out with my husband, and the two of you are going to take my son for frozen yogurt."

"Thanks, Kristina," Crosby said before looking at his brother. "I'm really sorry."

Adam glanced at his brother and waved his hand. "We'll talk about that later."

"Come on, Gaby, let's go!" Max called impatiently from the hallway. Gaby looked up apologetically at Kristina and Adam before grabbing her purse with a shrug and heading off to find Max. Crosby followed closely behind her, resting his hand on the small of her back. The small gesture didn't go unnoticed by the very perceptive eight-year-old boy. "Uncle Crosby, are you going to come, too?"

"If that's okay, buddy."

"Sure, you can drive so that Gaby can talk to me," he decided before launching into a deep conversation with Gaby about all the exciting news she had missed that week.

Crosby smiled at her over Max's head as they headed to the car, a genuine smile on her face as she listened to his nephew go on and on about his class' new lizard. She really was amazing, the way that she could not only handle things with Max but seemed to truly care about every word that he said. Crosby believed that her hard work would help him make sure that this relationship didn't fail. It might not be easy, but at least it was a start.

_Fin._


End file.
